Regurging (Spitting Up)

Apparently it's quite normal for preemies to spit up. I was told this has to do with an undeveloped flap that keeps food from rising out of the stomach. Like everything else with babies, some spit up more than others.

Alex seemed to have great difficulty with regurging from the start. His nurses tried many different things, from my holding him up for over an hour after a feed (probably worked the best- but he would still spit up after I put him down- and it wasn't manageable for me to be there for every feed); to keeping his head propped up on blankets; to keeping him on his tummy. It became routine quite quickly for me to hold him up when I was there, or to keep him on his tummy if I wasn't. A new nurse would come on and often try the normal way, him lying close to flat on his back, but that would usually only last once. I would tell them that it wouldn't work, but they would try anyway. And then he would spit up all over the place and they would quickly panic and try to clean it up, and say 'wow, he really does spit up'.

It was scary the few times I was sitting alone with Alex and he spit up so much that he would start choking. After the first time when I panicked and yelled for a nurse, I learned to quickly grab him and sit him upright, patting him lightly on the back. It was terrible to watch my little guy go through this every couple of hours; and it seemed that just when he would finally start to settle down, it was time for another feed.

Giving the tube feeds became quite the challenge as Alex did everything he could to push the milk and medications back up the tubes. It made some of the nurses quite unhappy as it meant they had to stay with him until he finished the feed so they could cap the tube before he brought it back up. I imagine it was easier when they could just hook the syringe to the top of the incubator, or later cot, quickly dump the milk down and come back a while later to unhook it and cap the tube. But between the regurging and pushing the milk back up, Alex could not be left alone during a feed.